Countries implementing the FATF travel rule in 2026

In October 2018 the FATF brought virtual assets under Recommendation 15, and in June 2019 its interpretive note carried the payment data rule over to crypto transfers. On 30 December 2024 the European Union began applying that rule to crypto transfers that involve a provider, with no minimum amount, except provider to provider transfers on own account. The FATF's seventh progress report followed on 16 July 2026.

The travel rule obliges a provider to send the sender's and recipient's details with a transfer. The FATF sets it as a standard, and a firm is bound only once its own country puts it into law. Crypto licensing follows the same national pattern.

How many countries have implemented the FATF travel rule in 2026?

The number of countries implementing the FATF travel rule depends on which of two counts you read, and both sit in the Financial Action Task Force's July 2026 targeted update. The survey count has grown every year: 35 jurisdictions with a law in 2023, 65 in 2024, 85 in 2025 and 91 out of 109 respondents in 2026 (Figure 1.10, p. 17). Enforcement trails: 55 of that group had yet to issue a finding or directive, or take any supervisory step, on travel rule compliance (paragraph 25).

The second count is Annex A. It lists each FATF member plus every jurisdiction with materially important virtual asset service provider (VASP) activity: 69 rows, about 97 percent of the global virtual asset, or cryptocurrency, market. In 55 rows the travel rule is law. In 49, stablecoin issuers that qualify as VASPs must be registered or licensed. The answers are self reported and, the FATF says, not independently verified.

Thailand is one of the rows still in progress, so a Thai exchange may have no duty yet to send or accept the data.

Which countries have not implemented the travel rule yet?

Fourteen of the 69 rows give an answer other than yes:

• In progress (4). Kenya, Panama, the Russian Federation and Thailand. Russia's FATF membership has been suspended since 24 February 2023.
• No (4). Argentina, Cambodia, Colombia and Vietnam. Cambodia slipped from in progress in the 2025 table.
• Not applicable, VASPs prohibited (6). Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

The FATF built the table for one purpose, to aim its support, and says a place in it signals nothing about a jurisdiction's risk (Annex A, paragraphs 5 and 9). For risk, use the FATF grey and black lists and your own assessment.

What changed for the travel rule in 2026?

Twelve rows moved between the 2025 and 2026 tables: eight reached yes, Russia moved up to in progress, Cambodia fell back and two were added.

Table 2. FATF travel rule status that changed, 2025 to 2026 (Annex A of the 2025 and 2026 updates)

National rules moved on these dates (each text is linked in Table 1 or below):

• 2 February 2026. Brazil's Resolução BCB 520 took effect, opening its first implementation stage.
• 31 March 2026. Australia's new travel rule obligations started.
• 30 June 2026. The UK cut the line for its fuller data set from 1,000 euros to £800.
• 16 July 2026. The FATF published the 2026 table.
• 11 August 2026. Korea's cabinet approved extending its rule to transfers of every size between registered VASPs.

How is the travel rule implemented in different countries?

Each country writes the standard into its own law. So the various jurisdictional travel rules differ in instrument, start date and the amount that triggers full data, while the FATF fixes only the outcome and a ceiling on that amount.

Table 1. Travel rule jurisdictions: FATF status as of July 2026 and the national rule (texts read 3 November 2026)

The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom

In the United States, FinCEN's guidance of 9 May 2019 treats a convertible virtual currency transfer as a transmittal of funds, so the rule can apply from $3,000 or the equivalent (p. 11).

The European Union sets no threshold. Under Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, applied from 30 December 2024, recital 30 asks for the same data on crypto transfers "regardless of their amount". It borrows its crypto asset definition, stablecoins included, from MiCA, the EU licensing act. Germany, France and the Netherlands all run this one text.

The United Kingdom's rule has bound cryptoasset businesses since 1 September 2023, under regulation 64C of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Names and an account number or transaction identifier always travel; an address, birth date or customer number joins them from £800 once a business outside the UK is in the chain.

Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Australia

Picture a Seoul exchange user moving KRW 500,000 of a token to another Korean exchange (illustrative). No travel rule message is due today, since Korea's rule starts at KRW 1 million; once the change approved on 11 August 2026 takes effect, the same transfer carries one.

Singapore asks for names and an account number or transaction identifier at any amount and verified originator data above S$1,500. Hong Kong's line is HK$8,000, with a shorter set below it. Japan's Act sets no amount, but leaves out foreign exchangers in jurisdictions named by Cabinet Order. Australia's rule, in force since 31 March 2026, covers every virtual asset transfer that is not incidental, whether domestic or international.

Canada and Brazil

Canada has applied the travel rule to virtual currency since 1 June 2021, from CAD 1,000, the level at which a transfer record is due. A receiving firm must take reasonable measures to obtain missing data.

Brazil's central bank set the rule in Resolução BCB 520 of 10 November 2025. Article 44 lists the sender and recipient data with no amount, and Article 89 phases it in: transfers between Brazilian providers first, then those with foreign counterparties.

Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa

FINMA's Guidance 02/2019 of 26 August 2019 applies Article 10 of its AML ordinance to blockchain payments and, unlike the FATF standard, grants no exception for unregulated wallet providers.

The UAE row is Dubai's rule. VARA's rulebook requires originator and beneficiary information before a transfer above AED 3,500 (Rule III.G.2), and before a client may use assets received above that value (III.G.3).

South Africa's Directive 9, in operation since 30 April 2025, covers transfers of any value. Below R5,000 a shorter data set is enough and need not be verified without a suspicion (paragraphs 4.5 and 4.6).

Which travel rule threshold applies in each country, and which side checks it?

Under paragraph 8 of the interpretive note to Recommendation 16, a country may set a de minimis line no higher than USD/EUR 1,000. Picture a Singapore exchange sending S$3,000 in a stablecoin to a Canadian platform (illustrative). The amount is above S$1,500, so the sender verifies its customer and sends the full data (PSN02 paragraph 13.6). On the Canadian side the sum is above CAD 1,000 at any recent exchange rate, so the platform must look for that data.

Can VASPs transact with countries that do not have the travel rule?

Yes, in the regimes below, on conditions each regulator writes down:

1. Check the counterparty's jurisdiction. The FATF asks countries to weigh transfers with "jurisdictions that have not taken steps towards regulating or banning VASPs" (Annex A, paragraph 8).
2. Collect the data anyway. The FCA expects a firm to "take all reasonable steps to establish whether the firm can receive the required information", or else to collect, verify and store it before sending.
3. Keep to wallets with a known owner. Until data can be exchanged, FINMA allows transfers only with external wallets proven to belong to the customer, or to a third party whose identity, beneficial owner and ownership of the wallet the firm has first checked as for a client.
4. Write the sunrise plan down. VARA asks for a plan for VASPs where the rule is not yet law, "the sunrise issue" (III.G.8).
5. Decide the fate of a transfer without data. FINTRAC requires a written policy to allow, suspend or reject it.
6. Set conditions for foreign providers. Once in force, Korea's approved rules allow overseas transfers on conditions, such as a low risk provider or one person at both ends (FSC, 11 August 2026).

Items 1 and 5 can be written as monitoring rules. In complead, formerly Sanction Scanner, a team builds transaction monitoring rules without code, tests each against 30, 60 or 90 days of past transfers, and versions every change. An analyst decides each flagged transfer, and the record shows who.

What comes next for the FATF travel rule worldwide?

Future global efforts now run to fixed dates, and Brazil's are the most precise: its providers must exchange data with one another by 2 February 2027, 365 days after the resolution took effect. Foreign counterparties follow within 365 more days, and the rule binds every authorized provider from 2 February 2028 (Art 89).

Other dates:

• Korea, six months after promulgation. Transfers of every size between registered VASPs fall under the rule.
• 31 March 2029. Australian ordering and beneficiary institutions start reporting transfers that involve unverified self hosted wallets.
• End of 2030. The revised Recommendation 16 of June 2025 comes into effect.

For its part, the FATF still counts the travel rule among its persistent challenges, citing inconsistent application (paragraph 49), and says it will keep monitoring, with particular attention to jurisdictions with significant VASP sectors (paragraph 50).

For the transfer desk, before Friday:

1. Mark each counterparty's country against Table 1, with the FATF status and the date you read it.
2. List the counterparties in the 14 jurisdictions without a yes, and name who approves each one.
3. Put in writing what happens to a transfer that arrives without data, and who signs that rule.

Travel rule table method. FATF status in Tables 1 and 2 is Annex A of the July 2026 and June 2025 updates, filled in by each jurisdiction; national rows were read in each regulator's text on 3 November 2026. Author: Sinan Tekin. Fact checked by: Ufuk Gürdaş, Compliance Specialist. Reviewed on 6 November 2026.